Pens and Paper

You know you're a paper junkie when ...

... you buy a couple of boxes of stationery in a store you haven't visited in a year, and the salesperson in the store remembers you from the last time!

Here's a call-out to Mercury Design Studio in Austin, Texas. It's not a paper store per se, but it has all kinds of lovely boxed cards, and some cool plates with vintage pencil ads on them. If you're nearby, stop in.

How important are pencils? They can make Porsches!

I was interviewing Porsche designer Michael Mauer last year for a story on his auto designs, when he happened to mention that he prefers to sketch with a pencil.

Up went my ears, because I'm a contributor to Pen World magazine, a publication for crazy pen collectors like me. So I spoke with him a second time, primarily about how he uses pencils to create his work. And now, I've got a story about pencils, including Mauer, in the February edition of the magazine ... click here!

Copy that!

There's only one company left in Canada making carbon paper, because hardly anyone uses the stuff anymore. Oddly enough, much of the demand is for prisons, where inmates have to make copies of their letters while they're writing them.

I certainly remember using carbon paper, and how much I hated having to correct a typing error, since both copies had to be erased. I also remember how nice it was to get a new sheet out of the box, because you always used an old sheet until there wasn't any carbon left on it. I actually wrote a couple of my novels with carbon paper copies. What memories - over and over!

What's up with pen prices?

I spent the day at an antiques market, much of which involved lots of little items: china, toys, and knick knacks. Of course, whenever I'm in any "old stuff" setting, I'm on the lookout for pens.

I found them, but of course they were the type that are all-too-familiar at these shows: pretty much worthless. Not one of them looked like it could easily be salvaged. Most had bent or broken nibs, lever fills that wouldn't move, or were missing their clips. One Sheaffer had a barrel marked Made in Canada, while its cap was marked Made in USA, but it was being marketed as an original pen.

And as is usually the case, most were outrageously overpriced. The highest was a Waterman Lady Patrician, encrusted with old ink and a lever that wouldn't budge, marked at $285. A Sheaffer with the tip of its nib snapped off was $65. Even crusty dip pens, their stained nibs stuffed into badly-chewed wooden handles, were $10 each.

What's up with this? Are people actually paying these prices, thinking they've purchased something wonderful, old, and valuable? And are these vendors out to fleece, or do they honestly believe that a pen that will never write again is somehow worth as much as one that does? Whatever it is, I'm tired of spotting pens at general antique shows, checking the high price tag, and then unscrewing the cap to discover a pen that looks like it's been in a war zone. Enough is enough already.